Mikel Arteta urges Arsenal to find consistency after 'statement' win
Mikel Arteta urges Arsenal to find consistency after ‘statement’ win over West Ham to leapfrog the Gunners up to fourth in the Premier League
- Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe scored in a 2-0 victory for Arsenal
- The victory leapfrogged the Gunners above West Ham into fourth position
- Arteta has urged his side to find consistency after their impressive win
Mikel Arteta declared Arsenal had sent out a statement after beating 10-man West Ham to climb into the top four for the first time this season.
Goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe saw Arsenal leapfrog Manchester United and the Hammers and move into the final Champions League place.
At the end of August Arsenal were rock-bottom after losing each of their first three games without scoring.
Goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe sealed an important win for Arsenal
But Arteta has steered them up the league with nine wins and two draws in their fourteen games since and urged his team not to stop at fourth.
Arteta said: ‘It was a big game for us having the capacity to go fourth and it was a statement. It [the position] is much better than we were and we want to be higher.
‘We want to find consistency. This league is absolutely ruthless and whatever you do today, tomorrow is different.
‘We needed a big performance and I think we did it. They were fully focused and wanted to show how strong we are as a team. The commitment and attitude they showed was what we wanted. We knew we had to play well today to beat West Ham and we did.’
Mikel Arteta has urged his side to find consistency following their statement win
Arsenal secured victory despite Alexandre Lacazette, captain again after the absent Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of the armband, saw his penalty saved by Lukasz Fabianski.
Aubameyang was left out of the Arsenal squad last night and asked when he will return, Arteta added: ‘No news. We will talk about that another day. He was ineligible for this game and that’s it, this game is gone now. We will discuss it in the future.
‘He [Lacazette] is the next in line and taking it the way everyone saw, with such a pride and commitment and I’m really happy with how he played.’
Vladimir Coufal was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Lacazette that led to the penalty and saw West Ham go down to 10 men.
Martinelli opened the scoring after Alexandre Lacazette slotted him through on goal
Smith Rowe came on as a second-half substitute and scored late in the game to make it 2-0
The booking and decision appeared harsh but West Ham manager David Moyes had few complaints about referee Anthony Taylor’s decision.
He said: ‘He does get the ball first but should have got more of the ball. His timing means he catches the top of the ball and follows through so that is probably why Anthony Taylor had reason to think about the decision.
‘We made a mess before that. It was a calamity.’
Moyes added: ‘I didn’t think an awful lot of our performance. We showed resilience to hang in the game but poor bits of play from us led to their goals.’
David Moyes had few complaints about Vladimir Coufal’s controversial red card decision
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